In the following essay, Schroeder discusses translations of the works of Hafiz, focusing on the importance of rhythm, repetition, and extensive annotation, and criticizing the rendering of Hafiz's poems by A. J. Arberry.

Amodest book generally arouses gratitude and respect, and these are among the feelings with which one lays down Professor Arberry's selection from the works of Hafiz and his fifteen English translators. His explicit purposes—to provide a textbook for those beginning to read Persian poetry and to exhibit the variety of Hafiz' work and the variety of its translation by different hands—are accomplished. His Introduction contains a summary of the facts of Hafiz' life and times, a brief discussion of the Divan text, its variants, and the causes of corruption, two Persian appreciations, an outline of...